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European Union leaders struggled to meet demands by Spain and Italy for relief from rising borrowing costs, threatening to derail a 120 billion-euro ($149 billion) pledge to boost economic growth.

Leaders from the 17 euro nations stayed on to debate the crisis-fighting plan early this morning after all 27 nations informally signed off on the growth strategy. Italy is withholding its final endorsement of the initiative as it pushes for collective action at an EU summit in Brussels to push down its bond yields, said two Italian officials who spoke on the condition that they not be named.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy said talks weren’t gridlocked and will continue through the night and later today.

“We haven’t yet a conclusion on the growth agenda because we have to discuss also the aspects of financial stability and we do this related to the discussion also foreseen” on the future of the euro, Van Rompuy told reporters late yesterday.

Italian officials said they were surprised by his remarks, signaled it sought a broader deal that includes immediate action on lowering borrowing costs. Germany has opposed any effort to join forces on sovereign debt or expand the crisis-fighting role of the European Central Bank.

French President Francois Hollande said Italy and Spain ought to receive support from the euro area’s firewall funds and that their yields are still too high after the efforts they’ve made to reform their economies. Spain’s 10-year yields breached 7 percent and Italy auctioned 10-year securities at the highest yields since December yesterday.

When they say it's not gridlocked they actually mean it's seriously gridlocked.

(Reuters) - Stockton, California became the largest city to file for bankruptcy in U.S. history on Thursday, after decades of fiscal mismanagement and a housing-market crash left it unable to pay its workers, pensioners and bondholders.

The filing followed three months of confidential talks between Stockton and its creditors aimed at averting bankruptcy.

The negotiations ended on Monday with the city failing to win enough concessions to help close its shortfall for the fiscal year starting on July 1.

The city of nearly 300,000 in California's Central Valley becomes the nation's most populous to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Jefferson County, Alabama, still remains the biggest in terms of debt outstanding, as it had a debt load exceeding $4 billion when it filed in 2011. Stockton has about $700 million in bond debt.

Stockton has suffered a sharp drop in revenue since the collapse of its once red-hot housing market. The housing boom transformed the farming city into a distant bedroom community of the San Francisco Bay area, and the bust put it at or near the top of national foreclosure rankings in recent years.

Meredith Whitney didn't say the muni debt problem would happen in 2011 but that the effects would start to be felt within twelve months.

Everything Von Rompuy just said in his speech is what Germany has been saying "nein" to. How stupid do the members at the EU Summit think the bond market is? He said the ESM would be able to recapitalize banks directly and loans from the ESM would not be senior.

Merkel seen leaving EU Summit with bags in hand. She was heard mumbling "F'em they're on their own."

In recent days, Monti and Rajoy have resorted to increasingly shrill rhetoric to indicate that their countries are in desperate need of assistance. They want the euro rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), to buy up Italian and Spanish bonds to push down market interest rates from levels approaching 7 percent, which is considered to be unsustainable for borrowing in the longer term. If the EU summit in Brussels fails to make this happen, then a "catastrophe" awaits, Monti has warned, adding that the euro would then "go to hell". On Thursday, Italy had to offer yields of 6.19 percent in order to float government bonds valuing a total of €5.4 billion ($6.7 billion).

But Berlin has so far been unfazed by Monti's warnings. The view of Merkel's government is that purchasing government bonds is not on the agenda. Sources inside the government are also shaking their heads over a report by Italian daily La Repubblica that Merkel could possibly return to Brussels on Saturday to negotiate with Monti on the subject. Her travel plans have not changed, they said, insisting that Merkel would return to Berlin on Friday afternoon for the vote on ratifying the ESM in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag.

Merkel's government also continues to categorically reject calls for direct bank recapitalization through the ESM, as Spain has demanded. As long as the authority to intervene remains at the national level, such a measure will not be undertaken, the source said. Otherwise, the source warned, a situation could arise in which the ESM became the majority shareholder in a Spanish bank but had no influence over it.

German government officials have pointed out that the ESM was created as an instrument with which to cushion the euro-zone in emergencies. If a government believes it requires aid, then it should apply for it, Berlin government sources said. It will then be processed quickly, as happened when Spain requested a bailout of its banks. But, officials state, the ESM's rules cannot be changed. When a country asks for aid from the International Monetary Fund, the source said, it doesn't tailor its instruments each time just to meet an applicant's needs either.

Merkel Ruffles Feathers in Brussels with Criticism

That's not something Monti and Rajoy will be pleased to hear. They appear to be counting on being able to get special treatment because of their size and power. But the message coming from Berlin is this: We have procedures and we are not going to compromise them. Indeed, this summit isn't about granting more "room for maneuver" or pushing limits, but about adhering to rules that are already clear, government sources said.

Angela Merkel took a tough stance ahead of the EU summit, insisting she would not make concessions. But Italy and Spain broke the will of the iron chancellor by out-negotiating her in the early hours of Friday morning. Germany caved in to demands for less stringent bailouts and direct aid to banks.

Painful Defeat

It is a painful defeat for Merkel. With the German parliament set to approve the ESM and the fiscal pact on Friday evening, Merkel had been eager to avoid making concessions to the southern Europeans. On the eve of the summit, the chancellor's advisers had ruled out the possibility of easing the rules governing access to the ESM. In particular, Merkel considered IMF oversight of aid recipients to be non-negotiable.

A few hours later, however, Monti and Rajoy had the chancellor where they wanted her. She agreed that countries would in the future be able to receive funds from the ESM without having to submit to troika oversight. Instead, only the European Commission's annual targets will have to be met. Monti said that Italy would not ask the ESM for help. For now, he only wanted to send a signal to the financial markets in order to take the pressure off Italy.

The prices on basic services have already dropped..most of these things are seen by nurse practicioners, and billed at a lower rate than an MD...

But you and I both know that there are many small businesses where one spouse has no medical care but has a job, and the family has coverage at the other spouse's work...I think these businesses,as close to the cliff as they already are, will close or lay off people. I know some that already have this year based on the unsure nature of 2013. They were already barely making it, and decided not to keep fighting..

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Fictional Character Quote of the Day:

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- Andy Dufresne

"The Shawshank Redemption"

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